Baked Plantains

Since we came home from Veracruz with quite a few plantains, as you can see from this picture, we needed to eat them rather quickly before they went bad.

Gabriela helped me peel yucca root one day

for some yummy beef stew (plantains pictured

in the background)

Miguel wanted baked plantains with cheese, so we made this recipe twice and everyone really loved it!

First, we peeled the plantains.  Then we split them open, set them in pans lined with tin foil, slathered them with butter and lined them with cheese.  We used manchego cheese because that's what we had, but any kind of cheese would probably work as well. I added some water in the pans to keep the plantains from drying out too much.  This is a recipe that works best with riper plantains.

Alternate recipes would be to cover the plantains with butter, cinnamon and brown sugar or use guayaba paste along with the cheese.

Breadsticks

I've been sick with a bad cold/flu this week and am still not feeling that great...I hate colds.  I thought I was feeling better yesterday, but I must have overdone it because this morning I had a bit of a rough start. 

But then I got with it and baked up four recipes of banana bread in muffins and small pans for Miguel and Micah to take to the sierra tomorrow.  Hopefully some of it will actually survive the trip so they can be used as host gifts!  I know how much Miguel loves his banana bread...Micah loves it, too, since the apple doesn't fall too far from the tree...

Since I had the oven already on and I made a big batch of spaghetti, I decided to make breadsticks as well.   I was expecting Micah to bring home two of his friends for a sleepover...but then Miguel called to say that the van broke down on him and the evening plans are now in question.  A friend was able to take a mechanic to where Miguel was and hopefully it will be an easy fix because this is a really bad time for our van to break down!  So I am really hoping that I will have a vehicle to use while Miguel is gone this week...

Anyway, I was disappointed they weren't making it for lunch because I tried out a new recipe for breadsticks and they are best warm from the oven...but oh well, the boys will still enjoy them whenever they get here.

I got the recipe from Allrecipes.com, which continues to be a favorite place for good recipes...I'm missing my regular cookbooks since they are packed away right now.  I also enjoy reading the comments and getting advice from others who have tried them. 

There was some debate in the comments about the dough being too soft and whether or not one needed to add more flour...in my opinion, you do need to either add more flour or reduce the liquid.  There is no way I could have kneaded or shaped the dough without having aded the extra flour.  But I did try not to add too much so that the dough would still be quite soft, reducing the chance of getting tough breadsticks out of it.  I spread out the dough with my hands, cut it up with a pizza cutter and I did twist them as well.

The recipe also wasn't very clear about the melted butter part...do you roll the sticks in the melted butter and then bake them in that same pan?  I decided to just grease the pan and follow the advice on one comment that merely brushed the tops with melted butter (which worked better anyway since the sticks were so soft they were a little hard to handle).  I added some garlic & spice mix to jazz it up a bit.  I left a few without, though, since not all of us are garlic fans. 

They turned out great and I'll definitely be making these again! 

Trying My Hand at Sauerkraut

I've been reading some about fermented foods and how they have incredible amounts of probiotics (Dr. Mercola has an interesting article here on fermented foods). Sauerkraut, for example, is known to have high amounts of probiotics and also Vitamin C that is actually more usable for your body than taking Vitamin C in other forms.

When I'm overseas, things like probiotics and probiotic starter cultures are not as accessible for me, so I decided to start with something that I can find locally and that doesn't require starter cultures.  We have a friend here in Puebla who is German-Mexican and he loaned me his crock and some sea salt, as he likes to make sauerkraut, too (if mine turns out good, I'll give him some!).

Then I looked at quite a few websites for a good, yet simple recipe for sauerkraut and was pleased to find this one. Not sure about the rest of the content on that blog, but there is a link to another interesting article on fermented foods, as well as links to other recipes that I'd like to check out here.

But for now, I'm starting simple with just sauerkraut. Besides, as the Dr. Mercola article points out, there can be a significant "healing crisis" (die-off reaction) if you begin taking too much fermented food too soon. I am curious to see if I can get Miguel and the kids to eat any, first of all, and then if we'll notice any difference in our health issues.  Miguel suffers from something like irritable bowel syndrome and all the kids and I have a yeast/cheese culture intolerance.  After reading about GAPS (Gut And Physiology Syndrome), it makes me wonder if we don't all need to pay more attention to probiotics.

I chopped up a cabbage and a half today and now it's setting in the pantry waiting for the fermenting process to begin...I used the pestle in the picture to pound the cabbage and it worked really well!

So...I guess I'll find out in a couple of weeks whether this recipe worked for me or not!

Cooking Class

A couple of weeks ago a friend from church invited me to a cooking class she attends at a local DIF (stands for Desarrollo Integral de la Familia, translation 'Integral Development of the Family').  Local DIFs offer many kinds of classes and services, from cooking to hair-styling to crafts to sports.  Classes are sometimes free, although the cooking classes cost a little to help offset the expenses.  Each class costs 25 pesos, or about 2$ US.

These classes are offered several times a day every day of the week except Sunday, but my friends only go on Wednesday nights.  While the ladies are at the class, the guys usually take all the kids over to the park to ride their bicycles and then everyone eats supper together afterwards.

I decided to go since the ladies are learning to make traditional Christmas dishes and also because it's a good chance to hang out with friends.  I was also curious about the class and figured it would be a great cultural experience!  Since it was somewhat a last-minute invite, I didn't have any ingredients to make anything that day, so I just watched and took pictures.

One of my friends made a carrot cake, but I was more interested in my other friend who made cochinita pibil, a traditional Mexican slow-roasted pork dish.  We love cochinita pibil and I was pretty excited to see it made.

Some of the ingredients for cochinita pibil:  oranges,

lemons, peppercorns, red onions, dried chiles, habanero peppers, 

achiote paste (red annatto seeds mixed with 

vinegar, salt, garlic and spices)

First of all, the cook helped select the right banana leaves to wrap the pork in while it was roasting in the oven.  They put the pork pieces in the oven to bake for about 1/2 an hour before adding the sauce.

Then the dried chiles were de-seeded, soaked in water, warmed and then blended together with some orange juice, the achiote paste and the peppercorns.  Salt, garlic and chicken bullion can be added, too.  Once the sauce was ready, they pulled the pork out of the oven and poured the sauce over the pork and baked for another hour or so.

In the meantime, she prepared the topping to eat with the cochinita pibil...grated carrot, sliced red onions, sliced habanero peppers (yes, it was SPICY!!!) along with lemon and orange juice.  She didn't happen to have another dish handy, so she improvised and used this baking dish.  I thought it looked pretty cool...

When the pork was finally done, we tasted a bit before heading home...the end result was absolutely delicious!  Cochinita pibil is traditionally shredded and then served  inside of corn tortillas and topped with the carrot/onion mixture.

For an actual recipe and more complete instructions on how to make cochinita pibil, check out this page!  It has a few differences from the process I observed, but is probably more complete and therefore more yummy.  :)  I don't have an oven or I would have tried this recipe at home already!

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to go to cooking class last week and my friend couldn't go this week, but I am looking forward to learning how to make something interesting next week!

Noodles!

I'm not sure where Miguel got this pasta machine, but he brought it home one day. It sat on the shelf for a long time before I finally decided that I might as well put it to work making noodles rather than gathering dust! Probably wasn't such a good idea, though, because now we don't want to go back to eating store-bought pasta after tasting the yummy goodness of fresh, home made pasta!

Gracia loves to help!

Fettuccine is our favorite kind of noodle for
everything from tuna-noodle
salad to spaghetti.

Gracia takes her job very seriously! She fluffs the pasta
just like Mom does...

The machine turned out to be
really easy to use (we won't talk about the clean-up);
makes it fun for the kids to help.

Luscious Lemon Squares

Every Wednesday, I make some sort of a dessert to send with Miguel to the small group we lead in our church. The kids and I can't always go because it makes for late night during the school year, but I do try to send a sweet something every week anyway. To my kids' delight, I usually try to make enough to keep some at home, too.

Yesterday, I was browsing through my Betty Crocker cookbook and decided to make Lemon Squares. I haven't made them in a long time and this was a new recipe for me. But wow! They turned out delicious and the recipe is fairly simple. So here you go.

Lemon Squares

1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup margarine or butter, softened
1/4 cup powdered sugar
2 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2 tsp. grated lemon peel, if desired
2 T lemon juice
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt

Heat oven to 350 degrees F. Mix flour, margarine, and powdered sugar. Press in ungreased square pan, 8 x 8 x 2 or 9 x 9 x 2 inches, building up 1/2-inch edges. Bake 20 minutes. Beat remaining ingredients until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Pour over hot crust. Bake until no indentation remains when touched lightly in center, about 25 minutes; cool. Cut into about 1 1/2-inch squares.

For Lemon-Coconut Squares: Stir 1/2 cup flaked coconut into egg mixture.

Quesillo (Flan)

I was thinking about what special dessert I could make for Miguel today, but of course, I would run out of flour right when I get the urge to bake! I could have just run down to the little neighborhood store around the corner to grab a kilo of flour, but then I'd have to dress the kids, get out in the cold...that's when I thought of quesillo (flan), which is pretty much Miguel's all-time favorite 'postre' (dessert). So that's what is in the oven now...

Here's a picture from the archives!
October 2005-Venezuela
Petra María (fellow missionary in Venezuela)
made me this lovely quesillo
for my birthday that year!

Petra makes the most beautiful quesillos...
mine are not nearly so pretty!

So, here's the easiest recipe ever for a good quesillo...you can prepare quesillo in a double boiler on the stove-top or baked in the oven. I don't have a double boiler, so I just bake mine in the oven. I will write the recipe as if for a double boiler, but will add the directions for the oven option at the end.

Quesillo (Flan)

1. Stir 1/2 cup of white sugar in a heavy saucepan or skillet over medium heat until it is melted and caramel-colored. It is easy to burn, so it is best to stir constantly, especially once the sugar begins to melt.

2. Pour the sugar mixture into a double boiler pan.

3. In the blender or with a whisk, mix together 6 eggs, 1 can of sweetened condensed milk (397 g or about 14 oz), plus the milk can filled with regular milk. Once blended well, pour over the sugar mixture in the double boiler pan.

4. Add water to the double boiler and cook at medium heat for 1 hour. It is done when a knife comes out clean. Remove from the double boiler and cool before turning out onto a plate.

Oven Option: Pour the sugar mixture into a round glass* pan or a glass* loaf pan. Pour milk mixture into the pan over the sugar mixture. Place into a larger glass* pan and put into a 350 degree pre-heated oven. Pour boiling water into the outer pan to a height of about 3/4 to 1 inch, thus creating a "double boiler" effect. Bake for about an hour or until knife comes out clean. I don't usually turn the quesillo out onto a plate using the oven option, we just cut and serve it right from the pan. :) To be honest, the quesillo doesn't usually last long to enough to make it worth dirtying another dish! LOL

*Glass pans are preferable, but you could probably use metal...just seems like the glass works better for the flan...

Horchata

Horchata-the Central American version of a rice-milk drink!

I found numerous recipes online for horchata, so I imagine that just like with the chicha, there are many ways of preparing this delicious and refreshing drink. Horchata is very common in Mexico and Central America and along with jamaica (a drink made from dried hibiscus flowers-looks like red Kool-aid), are two "new" drinks that we've enjoyed trying here.

I did find one recipe that called for cooked rice, but that seems to be the exception, most horchata recipes call for blending the rice uncooked. I'll have to conduct a poll with my Mexican friends to see how they are accustomed to preparing horchata in their homes. Although sometimes I get surprising responses, such as "Oh, I've never made it!" Like yesterday, I was showing a friend some pictures of Gracia and I making flour tortillas...she's Mexican and admitted to having never made tortillas in her life! Hmmm...I guess I made the mistake of assuming all Mexicans can make tortillas! We grew up making tortillas in Colombia because they weren't available there...but, I seriously digress...now back to horchata...here are a couple of recipes that look promising...

Horchata Recipe #1

Soak one cup of uncooked rice in water overnight.

Discard water and put the rice,

1 can of evaporated milk, and 4 cups of water

into the blender. Blend.

Add 1/2 cup of sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla,

and 1/2 tsp. cinnamon.

Strain through a cheesecloth or sieve.

Serve over ice.

Horchata Recipe #2

1 cup uncooked rice

5 cups water

1/2 cup milk

1/2 T vanilla

1/2 T cinnamon

1/2 - 2/3 cup sugar

Pour rice in blender, blend about one minute.

Let stand for 3 hours (or overnight).

Strain rice water into pitcher, discard rice.

Stir the milk, vanilla, cinnamon,

and sugar into the rice water.

Chill and stir before serving over ice.

If you try either of these recipes, let me know how they turn out! I'd love to hear back from you...

I got a kick out of this picture I found of

horchata-in-a-bag! Reminds me of times

we've gone to the neighborhood stores here that sell

soda-pop in glass bottles only.

If you want to leave the store with your soda,

you get it in a bag! With a straw, of course...

I also see that blogger is once again mysteriously squishing all of my lines together even though it doesn't show it that way as I type...I don't think I'll ever figure this thing out!

Chicha

When I hear the word chicha, I get a picture in my head of half a coconut filled with fermented corn or pineapple drink, because that's what my experience with chicha was in Colombia...but in Venezuela, chicha is a very popular non-fermented rice drink. Think rice pudding in the blender with sweetened condensed milk on top! Yummo! Miguel got a hankering for his beloved chicha yesterday, so I found a recipe online and it was declared a success.

Chicha

Recipe:

1 cup rice

5 cups water

salt to taste

3 cups whole milk

1 can sweetened cond. milk

1 can evaporated milk

cinnamon

Boil the rice in the water, add salt to taste.

When the rice is tender, blend together with

the whole milk (mine didn't fit into the blender all at one time).

Add the cans of milk, blend more (can reserve

some of the sweetened condensed milk for the topping).

When cool, serve with chipped ice.

Top with sweetened condensed milk, cinnamon,

chocolate powder, and/or chocolate/colored sprinkles.

There are quite a few variations of chicha in Venezuela,

so feel free to experiment!

Enjoy!

Some very happy customers!

Trying a New Recipe

There is a Christmas dinner at church tonight and I was asked to bring a guisado, a meat dish. I had the lady explain exactly what was meant by "guisado" since it can mean different things in different countries. She explained that it could be anything from sliced turkey to roast beef to meat sauteed with onions and tomatoes...so, pretty much any meat dish that could be served on its own alongside the other food (something like spaghetti sauce wouldn't work). Other people were to bring other parts of the meal, like vegetable dishes, salads, and desserts.

Since I only found out about the dinner last night (we've had a crazy week with school Christmas parties/programs and the church programs/rehearsals and Miguel had forgotten to inform me!), it didn't give me much time to think about what to take. So I peeked in my freezer to see what the options were...thank goodness I went shopping yesterday! I had two packages of "falda de res" (literally "beef skirt"-flank steak, I believe), which would have made a good shredded beef dish, some ground beef, and a medium-sized pork roast. I decided to go with the pork since it's a traditional Christmas meat here. So I got that out to thaw while I looked up recipes online. Almost all of my recipe books and recipe cards got left in Venezuela...but you can find just about anything online! Allrecipes is one of my favorite places to look.

Unfortunately, we forgot to bring our crockpot home from the Spanish study office where we'd used it to heat tamales for the Christmas party last Tuesday, so it was either stovetop or oven...amazingly, the first recipe I came to caught my eye as it called for pork, pineapple, and craisins, all of which I had today! :) I adapted the recipe for the oven instead of the crockpot and substituted fresh pineapple for the canned.

Here is what I did...first I let the pork thaw a bit and then I rubbed it with salt, freshly ground pepper, garlic powder, thyme, and rosemary. Then I seared it in a little oil and put it in the oven. While that was heating up, I added the pineapple chunks and chopped craisins to the pan I'd seared the pork in, adding about 1/3? cup of brown sugar and maybe a cup of water. I let that simmer until the pineapple was cooked, maybe 1/2 an hour or so?

When the pineapple was done, I took the roast out of the oven and turned it over, covering it with about half of the pineapple mixture. I covered the whole thing with foil and put it back in the oven for a while (can you tell I'm a bit foggy about the time? When it comes to times and measurements, I'm not exactly precise...LOL! I can't even tell you the temperature because the oven only has numbers from 1 to 5! I put it on 3, in case that helps). Anyway, I estimate that the time in the oven was somewhere around an hour, total, plus about 10 more minutes at the end where I turned the pork one more time, added the rest of the pineapple mixture, and put it back in the oven uncovered.

I have to tell you that the whole time it was baking, the house smelled SO GOOD! After I took it out of the oven and Miguel and I tasted a bit, he said, "Don't take it!" :) We couldn't resist tasting just a wee bit more...but there was still enough to send to the dinner (I was asked to send enough for 10 people). Ironically, Micah got sick this afternoon and I have a terrific headache/migraine, so Miguel went on his own with Gracia and Jojo. Oh well, I am thinking that I might fix this same dish for Christmas dinner, it would be SO good over mashed potatoes or even with roasted potatoes...hmmm...now there's a thought!

Recipes for a Venezuelan meal

Okay, we'll start with the arepa con carne mechada since that picture loaded first...

Arepa-the Venezuelan "gordita"

Arepas are made from a pre-cooked corn meal that is generally available at Latin food stores in the U.S. It might be hard to find in other parts of the world outside of Colombia and Venezuela. The most popular brand in Venezuela is the Harina PAN, a bright yellow package that is easy to spot in the stores.

I do not measure the water that I add to the corn meal, but I would say that recipe should go something like this:

2 cups corn flour
1 tsp. salt
3? cups of warm water (I think it's about 1 1/2 cups of water per cup of corn meal)

I add the water and then continue to mix the dough for a few minutes since the corn meal tends to soak up the water...sometimes I get it too hard and have to add more water after it's 'set' and that's hard. Anyway, the mix should be somewhat easy to handle, not too sticky and wet, but not so hard that the sides crack when you form the arepas.

Make a ball with the dough, then gradually start flattening the ball to form a cake...I generally just grab a handful and make them all relatively the same size. Fry the arepas on a griddle with a little oil until browned and crispy on both sides.

Colombians eat their arepas with the meal like bread, but Venezuelans cut them open and stuff them with many different kinds of fillings, ranging from butter and cheese to scrambled eggs to beef, pork, or chicken. The arepa in the picture below is stuffed with shredded beef, called 'carne mechada'.

Carne Mechada

Boil beef (chicken, pork, or other meat could be substituted) and cool, then shred
--For seasoning, add salt, garlic, onion, etc.

Sauté chopped onion, garlic, cilantro, peppers, and tomato in oil
Add the meat and simmer; add a little bit of the beef broth if needed to keep the meat moist
For added seasonings, comino and/or adobo can be used.

Meat cooked this way is also great over rice or to accompany beans!

Arepa with carne mechada

Venezuelan Potato Salad

Potatoes

Carrots

Beets

Mayonnaise

Salt to taste

Optional ingredients: boiled eggs, onions, pickles, chopped cilantro

Boil the potatoes, carrots, and beets. Sometimes I just throw the potatoes and carrots in the pot together and then peel afterwards. Or, the carrots can be peeled and chopped and then boiled, but that's a bit more work... The beets can be boiled whole, but it doesn't take as long if they are cut up in several pieces. They do tend to lose their color, but adding a bit of lemon juice will help.

Peel and dice the potatoes, carrots, and beets. Add mayonnaise and salt. Sometimes I add garlic powder for extra flavor. I also like to grate onion and then add just the onion juice-it avoids the crunchy burst of onion, which Miguel doesn't care for. If you add the boiled eggs, onions, or pickles, chop first...

Venezuelan potato salad, fried plantains, and arepa with carne mechada (cheese on the side)

I really commend you if you are still reading!!!! This is turning out to be a loooong post...maybe I should have broken it up. Oh well. I did want to add a note about frying plantains...

Tajadas (fried sliced plantains)

Venezuelans love their fried plantains (plátano)! They eat them nearly every day. Generally, tajadas are made from ripe plantains. Just peel and slice at an angle, then fry in oil. I have found that the riper the plantain, the more greasy they get...the exception to that is when I've used coconut oil and then they don't seem to be as greasy. To avoid frying, sometimes I sauté the tajadas in butter or a little oil and that seems to work pretty well, too.

There are many ways to cook plantains. The green ones are best fried like chips, with salt. I also like to add green plantain chunks to soups, but I think that's an acquired taste... The riper ones can be boiled (with or without the peel-cut each plantain into several pieces), roasted on the grill or in a fire (with peel-poke holes to allow the steam to escape), peeled and baked in the oven (they can be cut open and lined with cheese or slathered in butter and brown sugar!), etc. I've even had a sort of lasagna once that had fried plantains instead of the noodles! We eat them raw (ripe, only!). :) I guess the possibilities are endless...

Soup Recipes

Okay, before I write about anything else, I'm going to work on posting some of the recipes I promised...I had to make them up, which is why they are rather vague; they aren't really written down anywhere in my kitchen, although I'm sure that different ones could be found on the web. Let me know if you have any questions!

Sopa (Soup)

--1 lb. (1/2 kilo) or so of beef-stew meat with bones is good and it doesn't hurt to have some fat on it!

--beef buillion cube(s)-I like the kind you can get in the Latin food section of the grocery stores...Knorr brand or something similar

--salt, garlic powder, onion powder, cumin

--onion

--garlic cloves

--cilantro

--potatoes

--carrots

--Optional ingredients: sweet potato, yellow squash, corn on the cob (cut into smaller "rounds"), small red/yellow potatoes, green plantains.

I like to fry the meat a little in a bit of oil, adding chopped onion, garlic and cilantro. Add the desired amount of water and the buillion cubes and then throw in the chopped carrots and potatoes. Other ingredients, such as the squash or sweet potato can be added later since they don't need to cook as long. Check for flavor, you might need to add more salt or another buillion cube and remember that as the soup cooks, it will tend to get a bit more flavorful as everything mixes together (Miguel always says I tend to go heavy on the salt!).

Anyway, to serve this soup a la Mexicana, add sour cream (or crema), lemon juice, and hot sauce with a side of corn tortillas.

One other note about sopa...we found out that 'sopa' in Mexico contains 'fideos' (soup noodles), so this kind of soup would technically be called 'caldo' (broth). Interesting...we didn't know we'd been misleading people as to what we were going to serve!!! Oops.


Chicken Soup

Chicken soup is a variation of the above, using pieces of chicken instead of the beef. I generally use a whole chicken cut up and leave the pieces "as is" instead of deboning. Boil the chicken with the onion, garlic, cilantro, and seasonings, then remove it from the broth while the carrots, potatoes, etc. cooks. Chicken soup is definitely better with the pieces of corn in it and the squash adds a good flavor, too. Chicken soup fixed this way is called 'sancocho' in Colombia and is a favorite for the weekends and cookouts while on 'paseo' (outings to the country on Saturdays or Sundays).